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Add FightsATW on GoogleWWE Monday Night RAW was live from Greensboro, North Carolina, ahead of this weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event. The WWE is on a very busy leg as Clash in Paris follows up this weekend’s SNME, not to mention that it is the same weekend as the AAA ‘Mask V Mask’ show featuring dueling El Grande Americanos.
Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu seem destined to run things back, but the supporting cast remains as unknown variables, though for now, most seem willing to acknowledge the ‘Tribal Chief.’
LESNAR’S BACK FROM “RETIREMENT”, OBA FEMI LEFT ON HIS BACK
Oba Femi began his ‘open challenge’ because all the champions were busy, and after a couple of brave souls answered the call, we saw last week that the locker room has considered the ROI of fighting Femi, which is why Los Garzas were forced into being fodder for the phenom. It seemed like that was it for the open challenge, given there were no willing participants, leading to speculation that they might import opponents like Omos from AAA, as it was billed for this week’s episode.
In fact, tonight’s segment did feature an off-roster challenger in the form of Brock Lesnar, confirming speculation that his ‘retirement’ at WM42 was nothing more than a storyline after Lesnar left his gloves in the center ring following his loss to Oba Femi during the ‘free’ portion of the card broadcast on ESPN.
Lesnar left Oba Femi on the mat before slowly walking off as the former NXT champion lifted his head to get a ringside view of Lesnar’s walkout. Lesnar hit multiple F-5s on Oba Femi at the tail end of the upstart’s super over entrance. The crowd popped, chanting ‘holy sh**’ in a scene that had the live crowd on their feet for the entire segment.
When the show came back from commercial break, he was scrambling to get clarification on Lesnar’s status as he claimed that he ‘filed papers’ on his retirement. However, Heyman clarified that Lesnar remains retired, but he offered a single contract laying out the terms for a rematch between Lesnar and Oba at ‘Clash in Paris.’
ROMAN FIRED UP; FATU FIRED… SHOTS
For the second week in a row, RAW opened with Fatu’s job in limbo, with the WWE walking the tightrope between being canned and benefiting from decades of nepotism. GM Pearce once again sought Fatu’s termination from the company following his violent actions against officials in the aftermath of his loss at BackLash, where he unsuccessfully challenged for Roman’s heavyweight title.
And, once again, Roman Reigns existed as the catalyst for Fatu’s continued employment by taking the ‘Samoan Werewolf’s’ bait. Roman, unlike last week, agreed to let Pearce do what he needed to do before Jacob challenged his cousin to ‘Tribal Combat’ with the heavyweight title on the line.
Later in the evening, The Usos spoke on the severity of the current stakes when LA Knight ‘popped out’ to confront Jey and Jimmy. Knight railed against both men, accusing them of bowing down to Roman before the legendary tag team simply responded: “Not now.”
There exists a subplot with The USOS, specifically Jey, and their blinders for Roman’s issues prevent either superstar from elevating. This could be a point of friction to look out for.
SETH ROLLINS VS AUSTIN THEORY—Main Event
In the evening’s feature match, the former student in Austin Theory challenged the man he once followed early in his main roster career, Seth Rollins. The match was booked as a singles match, but Logan Paul did his best to assist everywhere he could before a miscalculation led to a Rollins victory.
Similar to the last few weeks, The Street Profits came down to assist Rollins after weeks of resistance from Montez Ford, who was notably the last ‘run out’ on the night. Breakker eventually came down and was the difference-maker, squashing the faces to close out both the segment and RAW.
FINN BALOR VS JD MCDONAUGH—Street Fight
In the current era of WWE, ‘hardcore’ is a gimmick that sometimes serves as a device to further a feud, and long gone are the ECW days—the good version, not the WWE version—where foreign objects were used in sync with genre-defining athleticism. Sure, there was the stuff for sickos, but matches between RVD and Jerry Lynn utilized tables and chairs and still stack up to the classics of that era.
Tonight’s matchup between Finn Balor and JD McDonagh—their third since the feud was launched in the aftermath of Mania—felt like a throwback Ruthless Aggression/Attitude Era match where weapons were secondary to the wrestling performance. They hit specific spots, of course, but they did it with such intensity and originality that spots we have seen many times before felt fresh.
Finn and JD have had solid matchups, especially the first, but they took this one to another level despite the typical interference spot that The Judgment Day has made their favorite accessory. Dom Mysterio interfered, but his presence was not enough to keep Balor from coming out on top—hitting a drop kick x ‘Coup de Grais’ combo while JD wore a trashcan like it was a Met Ball designer dress that cost a lot but looks like garbage.
OTHER TIDBITS
– Alongside his faction, Ludwig Kaiser’s version of the El Grande Americano character took on Chad Gable’s masked faction in a six-man tag just two weeks ahead of their ‘Mask V Mask’ match on AAA programming. We saw Los Americanos get their own metal plates for mask loading, and that would be the difference-maker, as Ludwig picked up the pin over OG El Grande following a flying headbutt. The win gives El Grande 2.0 the momentum, as a battle for merch sales is up for grabs between these dueling gimmicks.
– Brie Bella and Paige successfully retained their tag titles against The Judgment Day’s Roxxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. Brie picked up the pinfall victory over Perez following Liv Morgan getting tossed by the ref for interference. Liv came back out to beat on the tag champs, and that is when Lyra and Bayley ran out to help out Brie and Paige.
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